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Coconut, Charlotte’s Eats and Sweets

Keo, Arkansas

The meringue atop one of Charlotte Bowls’s coconut pies stands almost as tall as a 5-pound bag of sugar. Charlotte mixes fresh coconut into that mountain of meringue and then adds more coconut to the filling. But the Arkansas pie master doesn’t limit her baked concoctions just to coconut; she also makes a dozen other varieties from caramel to chocolate. For the past 16 years Charlotte has used recipes gathered from her family and friends. Now she teaches those recipes to her granddaughter, Michala Coffey, who has joined her in the family’s tasty business.